One of the most serious concerns relating to driving a vehicle is the awareness of the driver of the presence of other vehicles at the rear and on the sides of his vehicle. This has been recognized by the inclusion of a rear view mirror and a side view mirror on most vehicles. However, these require the driver's vision to be shifted from upper right to lower left in order to locate other vehicles. Not only does this require distraction from forward vision for a relatively long period, but the quality of side vision is still comparatively poor. There are still "blind spots" on the driver's side of the vehicle.
One approach to alleviate this problem is the elongated, convex mirror which may be mounted over the standard rear view mirror. This device still does not provide adequate vision to remove the "blind spot" in the driver's side of the vehicle. U.S. Pat. No. 4,394,065 issued to Swanson discloses a mirror assembly to be mounted on the sunshield visor with a mirror on both sides of the visor. The device does not provide an instantaneous complete view of the entire field of vision needed for safe operation of a vehicle. The driver's vision must be shifted from upper right (the conventional rear view mirror) to upper center (the mirror disclosed). U.S. Pat. No. 4,187,001 issued to Redwitz et al discloses a view expanding apparatus mounted on the lower righthand portion of the windshield to provide an expanded field of view for observation by the driver. U.S. Pat. No. 3,679,255 issued to Nacarato teaches a transparent tinted filter attached to the sunshield visor.
While addressing the problem, none of these devices provide a simple device which presents the entire rear and side view, which the driver of the vehicle can see at a single glance and which adequately shows the rearward field of vision. There remains a need for an apparatus to improve the safety of operation of motor vehicles by providing better rearward vision to the driver of a motor vehicle.